Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

well-stocked plantations on the lands of Montgomerie. Sometimes by day, sometimes by night, he indulged his natural instincts for
sport, and many a heavy bag he carried to his home in Saltcoats.
Alexander, the eleventh Earl of Eglinton, was no narrow-minded peer, wrapped up in his own selfish interests. On the contrary, he
was a nobleman of exceptional culture, alive to the interests of the country, zealous in promoting its material well-being, personally
and practically interested in agricultural pursuits, and popular over all the lands which he had inherited. But he was none the less
imbued with a high sense of the maintenance of his own right, in game as in other things, and he learned with displeasure that the
Saltcoats exciseman, from whose avocation, as well as from whose birth and education, better things might have been expected,
was appropriating without permission the winged and the four-footed reservations so dear to the heart of the sportsman.
While riding across one of his fields, the Earl encountered Campbell, gun in hand. The exciseman was within five years of reaching
three-score years of age, and he had all the coolness of a man of his experience and training. When the Earl hailed him he made no
effort to escape, but stood still, quietly waiting until the peer should come up with him. The usual dialogue ensued. The Earl
demanded to know by what right he was trespassing in pursuit of game Campbell returned a half-evasive, half-apologetic answer,
and the Earl warned him that if ever he was found poaching there again in it would be the worse for him. He made the exciseman
promise that he would in future observe the law, and this Campbell promised to do, in consideration that no notice, should be taken
of his present offence.
Lord Eglinton dismissed him with an admonition to remember his position as a public servant, and not to weaken his influence by
breaking the law he was sworn to maintain, and Campbell went home not at all dissatisfied that he had been treated so leniently.
The instinct for illegitimate sport is certainly not less than that for legitimate. The poacher is not by any means to be regarded simply
as a Creature who takes the risks incidental to his dangerous avocation for the mere love of the pounds, shillings and pence that he
receives from the game-vendor in return for the miscellaneous ingatherings of the night's raid on the preserves of the laird. He is
this, indeed, but he is almost invariably something more, he is a lover of the sport itself for the sake, of the sport. It is real pleasure
to him to tread the yielding heather and to note the hare spring in the early morning, from the dew- bespangled grass. To steal
through the copse of the laird when the moon is up, or to ransack the cover, brings joy to his soul. Unfortunately for him, he is not
often other than a poor man, and his regard for the strict letter of the law and his moral sensibilities are not sufficiently strong to
outweigh the longing that possesses him to bag the pheasant or the hare.
So it was with Mungo Campbell. For a while he refrained from trespassing on the possessions of the Earl of Eglinton. The sight of
his gun gave him many a twinge of longing and he felt as if he ought somehow or other to be off and away across the country in
search of sport and of game. He resisted after a fashion, but stronger grew the desire and still stronger, until he yielded to it and
resumed his poaching operations.
The month of October, 1769, came round. The crops had been gathered in, and the partridges were among the stubble. It was the
season for the sportsman to be abroad, and Campbell went too, out into the parks of Ardrossan, close to the sea-shore. His gun
was below his arm. While he was quietly pursuing his illegal way, the Earl of Eglinton saw him. The Earl was on horseback, but he
alighted, leaving his four servants a little way behind him, and advanced towards the exciseman. Campbell waited until he came up.
He was nettled at having been caught, ill the act from which he had promised to abstain, and, his native dourness of temperament
coming to his aid, he resolved to face the noble lord with what tenacity of unyielding be could muster.
"And so, my man," said the Earl, " I've trapped you again?"
Have you, my lord returned Campbell, refraining from direct answer.
"I have, and you are not going to escape me so easily as you did this time last year. You remember you promised to abstain from
poaching if I took no proceedings against you then, and I refrained. Your memory is short."
"Is it?" replied the exciseman.
"Yes, it is short," continued the Earl." And now I'll trouble you for that gun."
"No, my lord, the gun you cannot have."
" Then I shall have to take it from you."
"No, my lord, you shall not take it so long as I can retain it," said Campbell, decisively.
"But have it I shall," returned the Earl.
"No, my lord, you shall not. If I have offended in any way against your lordship, or against the law, the law is open to you; but you
have no right to this gun. It is my property, and not yours, and I mean to keep it."
"We shall see about that," calmly replied the Earl, advancing upon Campbell.
" Stand back, my lord," Campbell said, and there was a ring of determination in his tones; "stand back as you value your life. God
knows I do not wish to harm a hair of your head, Lord Eglinton; but stand off, I say, and leave me alone."
Notwithstanding the threat, Lord Eglinton kept on advancing. The exciseman deliberately raised his gun and put the butt to his
shoulder, the muzzle pointed straight at the Earl. The latter eyed Campbell, and the exciseman returned the stare without a tremor
or a sign of yielding Recognizing that he had to do with a desperate man, Lord Eglinton paused, and called on his servants to
approach. These were watching the proceedings with the most undisguised evidence of alarm. They knew Campbell's reputation,
and they had every reason to fear that he would carry his threat into execution.
When the servants were by his side, the Earl renewed his appeal to the exciseman to hand over the fowling-piece, and received the
same reply.
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